Contact: Jessica Gillman, 202-350-8582; Lawrence Pacheco, 202-715-1555

WASHINGTON, March 18 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Rockefeller Foundation has made a grant of $900,000 over three years to support the next phase of the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative. The program will assist nine partner cities and counties in making effective policy and investment decisions to increase their resiliency to the impacts of climate change and to educate key audiences on adaptation.

Local governments are the "first responders" to social and economic disruptions resulting from natural disasters and must anticipate, prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change while also minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Urban Leaders partners are representatives from Chicago, King County (Wash.), Los Angeles, Miami-Dade County (Fla.), Milwaukee, Nassau County (N.Y.), Phoenix, San Francisco and Toronto. Through the Initiative, these nine local governments are advancing the climate policy discussion beyond mitigation and leading the way to ensure that future infrastructure and land use decisions bolster the resilience of their communities to the expected impacts of climate change.

"In the coming years and decades, climate change will become a key factor in infrastructure development and a host of planning and policy decisions," said CCAP President Ned Helme. "It is critical that private entities and governments at all levels start integrating adaptation considerations into their regular decision making processes. The Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative will equip CCAP's partners with the knowledge and tools to get started on implementing adaptation measures and provide a framework for policy issues that will enable the federal government to support local resiliency efforts."

Support for CCAP and Urban Leaders is part of the Rockefeller Foundation's $70 Million Climate Change Resilience Initiative, which aims to catalyze attention, funding and action in building climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people worldwide.

"We applaud CCAP's pioneering work in supporting these municipalities to plan, in advance, for the inevitable impacts of climate change to their communities," said Maria Blair, associate vice president and managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation. "The Rockefeller Foundation is delighted to support the CCAP Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative and we expect that many of the lessons learned will be applicable to communities elsewhere around the world."

With its charter partner - Washington State King County Executive Ron Sims - CCAP's vision for the initiative is to examine projected climate impacts in 2050 and 'back cast' to identify the necessary steps to reduce GHG emissions and build local-level resiliency. King County's Climate Plan, released in Feb. 2007, includes specific adaptation measures such as the innovative water reclamation project ('Brightwater'), created to respond to the diminishing Cascades snow pack.

King County also recently created a Flood Control Zone District and established a countywide fee to fund critical infrastructure in areas that are most vulnerable to increased fall and winter flooding.

"Preparing for climate change today is a question of equity and justice," said Sims. "We have to do what we can now in our infrastructure decisions to protect public health and assets in the decades to come, and to make sure that all the children of our community - and communities across the world - can survive and thrive in this changing climate."

On May 20, King County will host CCAP's annual partner meeting to share best practices, get an on-the-ground look at King County's cutting-edge adaptation projects and move forward with the Urban Leaders action agenda.

Since 1985, CCAP has been a recognized world leader in climate and air quality policy and is the only independent, nonprofit think-tank working exclusively on those issues at the local, national and international levels. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CCAP helps policymakers around the world to develop, promote and implement innovative, market-based solutions to major climate, air quality and energy problems that balance both environmental and economic interests. For more information about CCAP, please visit http://www.ccap.org/.

The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., to "promote the well-being" of humanity by addressing the root causes of serious problems. The Foundation supports work around the world to expand opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help ensure that globalization's benefits are more widely shared. With assets of nearly $4 billion, it is one of the few institutions to conduct such work both within the United States and internationally.